T’puram: The state govt shied away from the responsibility of holding the Global Ayyappa Sangamam, with devaswom minister V N Vasavan saying that it was organised by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president.“The govt only provided logistical support to the Global Ayyappa Sangamam. It is known that Rs 4 crore was obtained through sponsorship. The devaswom board is responsible for providing the remaining financial details,” said Vasavan. His response came in the wake of the audit report filed by Sabarimala special commissioner before the high court, which stated that the sangamam incurred a loss of Rs 3.4 crore for TDB.As per the report, the total expense of the sangamam was Rs 7.4 crore while the total sponsorship received was Rs 4 crore. However, the minister was not ready to take responsibility for the Rs 3.4-crore loss, saying that the govt had no direct role in organising the event.TDB president K Jayakumar said that the accounts related to the Global Ayyappa Sangamam need to be settled and that only Rs 4 crore were received through sponsorship. “The expenses exceed this amount and a meeting of the board has been called on Feb 17 to address the issue. Efforts will be made to secure more sponsorships. The board meeting will review the expenses and solutions will be discussed. The event coordinator, ULCC, has also been invited to the board meeting since all the funding of the event was made by them,” said Jayakumar.Furthermore, there are indications that the sangamam is under the scrutiny of the SIT. Its interim report submitted to the Kerala high court regarding the Sabarimala gold heist case, contains significant findings related to this.It mentions that the Global Ayyappa Sangamam, which took place during P S Prasanth’s tenure as TDB president was not recorded in the minutes of the Devaswom meeting. The report also highlights ambiguities in the utilisation of funds for the Global Ayyappa Convention.
